Eight Hours of Obligation
by So Guhn
Summary: [Collection of Uchiha Shisui centric fic&drabbles.] [All genres.] [Various ratings.] [Much speculation.]
1. Deuteronomy ONE

a/n: In which Shisui is a girl and you'll not want to read this.

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and not me.

Deuteronomy – PG13 – 1/2

It wasn't like the world to be touched.

All her life she had been told she was weak. The youngest of four brothers that would be killed in every battle, her father sheltered her and her mother, the fallen grace, a mirror image of Shisui that didn't exactly fit. She had died giving birth to her. Born so close to the godless month, Shisui found it humourous that she was considered the unlucky of the clan.

So they stuck that label on her. And she would find out with the passing years, with growing contention and her stressed cousin younger by years to her donning the mask of an adult while still trying to understand his own growth. That was a funny thing about herself, she knew. A part of her no matter what age had always felt aware of anything and thought. She saw the ulterior motives of the adults, the reason of tears on a child's face and all the scorn. Her eyes she knew were different from everyone else's.

A cage within a cage. She would later tell Itachi, fingers skimming across the prodigy's pale cheek.

But for today in her yesterday she would remain. The river flowing her where she wanted to go, at the time, the height in her young age, considered the strongest Uchiha. Weak you said?

And she's smoothed away that wave and made new ones. But she could only wonder, Itachi whom since the age of four had followed her around, whom had developed far beyond her- should he grow any further. How long it would last.

How long? And she in that hazy field of death filled with wilted flowers and no wear, as if she should have foreseen it all the moment she held Itachi in her small arms.

--

He walked back into the district, the one of the few Uchiha children lasting outside the compound. Preferring or being ordered to stay with and away from the greatest of clan ideals. It was like this, Uchiha children however young stayed with the clan. And while they were ninja of Konoha, they were Uchiha first. They were taught within the district walls in the manner that they were born into, their bloody heritage cursed- it was altered to be found. Only rarely did they allow a child from within their walls to mingle with the unworthy. The children of the main house were usually sent. For what better way to look the best under the Hokage's eyes than to send your best?

That was their first mistake.

Shisui had never been to school outside.

And even when an Uchiha had enough children to send them to school, rarely did they stay there before their age readiness cause them to be withdrawn into the clan again and be set with a "real job".

Itachi almost looks startled.

"Shisui,"

She greets him, hand wavering in the slightest and smile quirked on her face. Not faltering even in the slightest when she notices Itachi's eyes tired, with dark circles wrapped around them in solid wreaths of shadow. "Working hard, Itachi-kun?"

He nods. Not knowing when to bow with her as usual.

"With you just recently gaining the status of ANBU you must be busy," she reaches, stretching longer legs to meet Itachi's stride. The afternoon setting in and smelling of thick clematis. "I'm surprised to even see you at all, this time of day."

Once again Itachi nods, not being one for conversation, and wasting a good part of what he did know on it when reporting to the higher ranks. But then, one could argue about what kind of conversation skills were being drawn upon.

"You've gotten so strong now sometimes it feels like I barely know you at all," Shisui starts, not wanting to bring down Itachi, but curious on if her words mattered any more. He had changed just a little. A shift she had noticed, a deeper indention from the one she had made with every startled step she had made him take since he was born.

"Well," she starts, smile turning into a coy smirk."Shall we get something to eat?"

She swings an arm across his shoulders, forcing a strut and him into a faster walk as they head into town, her original purpose for heading out so close to their border's exit lost to a string of words and forged hunger. Itachi looked the least bit comforted by her put out happy. And she could live with that."I was thinking something spicy. You?"

--

They end up in a noodle shop Shisui doubts Itachi will remember the name of just an hour later after eating, should she ask. It is run by some fourth cousin's step-sister's Aunt. And right now with slick noodles- not a steaming hot, but a room temperature- not exactly the cold she prefers, she eats with enthusiasm, every bite slick with the curl of noodles in her mouth counting for the words Itachi lets slip easily.

"Good, aren't they?" she murmurs around her noodles, and the lip of her bowl.

"They are," Itachi replies, hands tense but shoulders lax as he slowly eats. Seeming to enjoy the taste with emptiness.

Shisui sets her bowl down, pointing somewhat rude at the contents of Itachi's bowl "Whoa. We ordered the same thing- and," a shifty feigned hurt look to mentioned cousin sitting behind the counter with lifted eyebrows and a newspaper to pretend he wasn't listening in on a conversation he wasn't even so sure Itachi was participating in.

"-Itachi-kun got more red peppers than me! Unfair! Unfair!"

She sets the chopsticks down, neatly. Contemplating on starting a tab she wouldn't ever have to pay.

However she pays, for both her and Itachi- and stringing him along, arm in arm exiting through red curtains that hurt her eyes.

"Itachi," she says, and he looks up from the use, the lost sound- mind clicking and changing in more ways than one within that moment. She slows their pace through the near empty paths through an alley way that was desolate. A white cat lying across a window sill with bordered screens. The walls all black and the dirt before them upswept. They do not stumble or will but she loosely carries one of his arms besides her. "There's this old story. About our clan; we have many as you know- but this one is extremely important, this one speaks of ourselves- of our fate."

"Fate?" Itachi echoes not entirely sure he believed in such a thing. Not entirely sure it was Shisui who was talking.

"Perhaps. This was before even our grandparent's time, or even our relocation into Konoha- you understand that this is the root of why you are so important to the clan in keeping up connections?"

Itachi is hesitant to nod and Shisui is taken aback by her cousin's insecurity.

"It is against our laws to have so much contact with people that aren't of our blood, by forcing such encounters on the strongest of our bloodline we keep the weaker ones safe." She does not feel the need to hold on to his arm any more. It slips from her and she looks on into him, through him. And he does not seem to mind because he is looking at her in the same way.

"You understand don't you? The reason of your unhappiness."

He replies coolly as he always has.

"I do not know what you are saying Shisui."

Itachi moves forward intending to step past Shisui and behind her, beyond her reach and her eyes a deeper crimson than his- "Power. You used to want it to protect didn't you? But you see it; you see that you don't need any more of it because you're over flowing with it. But Fugaku- Fugaku thinks you need more so he keeps trying to pour more into you."

Itachi stops, back facing Shisui and she thinks the fan looks more omniscient on his back than on any one else. "Shisui…" he clears his throat but she does not hear it "you are like a brother to me, why are you saying this?"

She pins him with a glare she'll know he'll feel even if their eyes have no contact, have no sight, and the shiver that runs through him is fear and wonder and the same as ever- but that is all, "Because, Itachi," she closes those eyes and her head turns to see that the cat is no longer perched on that darkened window sill. "You are the only one who has the potential of breaking free of any of those laws."

It is sadistic, her smile.

"And that is important to me."

Slowly the dawning of realization that was already there curls around him as his grip does on the sharpened kunai.

"What are you so afraid of?"

And Shisui chuckles in the slightest, shaking her head, "Tomorrow. Meet me here won't you?" and on heel she turns and their backs face the other, there is no fan on her back and Itachi does not notice.

And the cat returns to its perch on the windowsill.

--

It is raining and she sees an umbrella held up to the height of her hip, the red she sees so often.

"Sasuke-kun," she calls spotting the moisten boy underneath the waxed paper and peeling wood. He is silent and intense under the din of falling rain as it patters through the day across surfaces it could only touch. It's some form of late summer falling into autumn, and is still hot despite the water, her cousin wears customary black shorts and a black shirt with the same collar and same insignia she used to wear at that age. He wears round zori of a tan wood, and scarlet cloth between his small toes, cushioned. She doesn't think it all too befitting for a shinobi in the making, and knows Mikoto picked them out anyway despite.

"What are you doing?"

They are near the outskirts of their district, Sasuke does not look to her, but rather the way the water splashes across some stones, and Shisui already knows-

"Nii-san is coming home soon."

"Is that so?" she waves and pushes back the damp hair that has fallen in her eyes, thinking of a trim she won't go through with as many other things "Do you always wait for him?"

"It's raining today."

Shisui pauses, finding it ludicrous to bring Itachi an umbrella to protect him from the rain when he had already slain five full grown enemy shinobi at the age of seven. But then… this clan had customs and reason hadn't always been their specialty. It had taken a long time for them to make their minds shape in the thinking of regular people.

Shisui crouches down to Sasuke's level, the boy with bent knees as he sort of kneels on the ground in a replication of a prayer he doesn't understand. The world is the same at this view point and she sighs not finding any reason and getting soaked by the second.

"How long till he actually comes home?"

And Sasuke finally looks at her and briefly he smiles a smile that makes her think she understands Itachi completely, a light blush against white white skin delicate under the darkened light "Two more hours."

--

She doesn't like to knock.

"Good morning Mikoto-san," they meet coincidentally in the market and Shisui comments on how green the leek is today. "But you came here for spring onions, didn't you?"

The young mother turns, smiling. "I did. I prefer them fresh and around this time of year…" she trails off a little laugh to her voice that Shisui finds charming and likelihood to her younger son. They look a lot alike. He knows.

"That does seem to be the case at times," Shisui says smiling as well even if she really doesn't feel it stretch across her lips to cherish a moment that would be erased when red and the world came crashing down as god looked away. (Their clan didn't believe in him any way.) "Oh."

"Oh? " Mikoto responds, picking up a bright red tomato thinking Sasuke may like it in the dinner stew.

"Where is Itachi-kun today?"

Mikoto sets it own, a nervous unease crossing her features and clutching her brow, "Shisui."

"Mikoto-san."

"You've been watching him haven't you."

Shisui falls into a slant, arms crossed.

Mikoto continues a sort of tremor in her soft voice, "He's been acting strange lately."

Looking at her in deliverance Shisui nods eyes narrowing "That's true…" and before her face crumples and she drops her purchased items from that worn straw bag lined with brown silk Shisui says in the calm symmetrical way one uses for comforting purposes "But he'll be fine. For sure, I'll protect him."

She seems startled, but it shows only as slow belief sinking into that dangerous calm, that peace they were not allowed to have. "Protect him?"

"Surely you've been taught this before. About humans."

"That…"

"That if we have something to protect," Shisui murmurs, the sun dangerously bright and blocking their forms even in the center of it all, Shisui leans close lips brushing Mikoto's ear. "We will do anything."

Mikoto smiles then taking a chance on Shisui's moving head and simple hands.

"I don't agree, Shisui-kun."


	2. Something like the Devil

a/n: Shut up.

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and not me.

Something like the Devil – PG13

Itachi comes in blood still caking his hands, a brown thick layer of flaking- reminiscent of paint. He walks through the front door, careful to take his shoes off at the entrance- yesterday he had forgotten and tracked grass into the house. Mikoto hadn't said anything even though she had had to clean it up. He walks into the kitchen, dirty hands not the priority to him- throat dry he wanted-

"Itachi-kun, welcome home."

Itachi looks over across the low table, full view of Shisui's profile catching his sore eyes in the early morning of a new day. "You're tired, hard day?"

This wasn't common. What was Shisui doing in his home at this hour? Why was the house so quiet? Come to think of it… the air had smelled different, and his walk here he had felt too disorientated, the over use of his sharingan had been apparent when the illusion of death had still gripped him as he returned home and-

"Where's Sasuke?"

Shisui smiles, warm and unconcerned. "Still out training to become stronger than you."

Itachi swallows dryly, "Training?"

He had gotten the time wrong? Had the sky not been that dull grey when he walked through it and the fog-

"Shisui."

"You noticed? The genjutsu I used."

Night hasn't fallen yet and he sees through the kitchen window, Shisui leaning against the counter of the wet sink- that the sun is still up.

"Shall I make you some tea? You just look very drained, maybe it will freshen you up," and Shisui turns hand moving into cabinets that weren't his own for the tin of tea leaves. Itseems he hasn't been waiting long or perhaps that he has been, and easily anticipated how much time it took for Itachi to return. Or maybe, because Itachi could not tell how long he had been in Shisui's illusion…

"Sit," Shisui says hand swinging out in a sort of welcome a curling smile too far away from a smirk causing Itachi want to back away. His cousin sets a steaming cup down. Itachi sits. It hitting him not too long ago.

"Why are you… alive?"

Shisui cocks his head, shakingit slightly. "I'm not."

Itachi lifts the cup, not waiting for the tea to cool. He burns his tongue and throat as he swallows the liquid down. "Then why are you here?"

Shisui sighs, "Isn't it obvious?"

The younger Uchiha stills, placing the cup back upon the table with a dull thud, "Not at all Shisui."

Silently, the motions of the living as Shisui shows discomfort for placing his foot at the wrong angle as he tries to join Itachi at the table, no tea for him. "You left things undone."

It's loud, a gush of wind that rattles the house, causing the creaking of a hinged sign somewhere on the compound, swinging wildly. It stops when Shisui speaks again, looking bored, Itachi knew better than to not listen as carefully as he could. His cousin had no qualms with drastically changing the volume of his voice to suit his mood.

"Under the 7th tatami mat. At the Nakano temple. Go there will you?" Shisui rises, his moment of sitting too long and irritating. Shisui had patience to an extreme, where he would only use it should it suit to help his favour.

Six hours later Itachi would kill his brother's innocence with Shisui's deeds.


	3. Such as a Mountain

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and not me.

Such as a Mountain – PG13

They stand apart and dangerous with a feral look, a starving wolf the sound of water falling behind them and across their backs inevitable- Shisui stands the tall proud figure that would feel and witness the crashing of his own era.

"Shisui."

"Itachi."

Names that would be forgotten thanks to the passing days and willing human eagerness to wash everything that is dirty. Shisui's hand flies to his katana, hands holding it up untamed, black hair fallen across his black eyes Itachi has always thought Shisui looked a little too much like his mother for comfort.

Body tense but poised, Itachi carries no weapon to obvious eyes. Almost angry he asks "Why are you doing this? Shisui!"

"Our clan," and the words bitter and brittle as a decaying bird's bones under the descent of winter sun "is cursed. We exist for one purpose," he steps each motion is deliberate. The calm façade crashing down and rallying against broken bars with jagged edges. The dusk's air smelling of roses and sky a flickered orange.

"One purpose?" Itachi echoes, not daring to take his eyes off of Shisui's figure, slim and quick- the master of the body flicker technique was also a master of flukes.

"The happiness of others." He lifts his chin, hair falling back even past his ears, throat white as the rising moon, "We were made to hate each. Betray one another-" swifter than Itachi has ever seen him a warning not meant to be there but living, the katana is drawn silver dulled by the dark splotches of blood- "You can't possib-"

Shisui is before him sword bared, teeth bared, eyes bared a voice choking and so unlike his only friend- "to kill one another!"

It hacks across his arm, had Itachi pulled away a moment later it would have taken it through the bone. A warning slaps across his side, causing his disbelieving body to fall _how could the successor of Uchiha react in such a manner? _– across slick rock. The night air over taking the day and every bit the vengeful spirit, o wrathful entity of fire Shisui would give no more warnings "As I desire and you desire- such foolish wishes such as ours can only be seen for what they truly are."

He doesn't hold out the hand he usually does. This is the first and last time Itachi will ever see Shisui turn his back on his own blood. "Disgusting things."

A bite. A spider's bite. Itachi doesn't remember what hour of the night he had stayed up haunted by images of Sasuke leaning close, those small hands touching him warmly and a smile that made the heaviness in his chest when he washed blood from his hands all the more heavier.

It's cold. The blade slips under his chin, the remainder of his sanity with it. "You understand Itachi. Both of us can't live."

"No Shisui," and Shisui's eyebrows lift but a little to show he is taken aback by Itachi's calm- Itachi who is cold, Itachi who is the greatest Uchiha of them all. _What foolishness. _

"None of us can."

And night stopped.

Smiling Shisui replied, "Is that so?"


	4. Summer

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and not me.

Summer – impl. ItaSasu - R

It's hot and in the sticky weather of cicadas chirping and the sun setting to evaporate all moisture from the air. Shisui's younger cousin looks relieved when he presents him with a treat.

"Cold," Sasuke says placing it in his mouth, cheeks slightly flushed and lashes delicately long. Shisui smiles brightly, shooting Itachi a look. They share the hall way, bars broken from some fight Sasuke heard in the night and Shisui chooses to ignore, their feet dangle over the edge, remnants of broken wood cleared away. It was an unneeded exit or entrance.

"Splendid," Shisui says laughter slightly as Sasuke's head bobs up and down, mouth trying so hard to take in the popsicle all at once, smearing the bright red across his small mouth. Shisui had only bought cherry.

"Would you like one Itachi-kun?" Shisui asks reaching over to present what was starting to steadily drip into his right hand. Left of two.

"Keep it to yourself Shisui."

"Ah," shrugging he plops besides his best friend looking all the more charmingly offended as he usually did when Itachi turned him down. "Suit yourself."

And noticed. Shisui doesn't miss the look Itachi gives Sasuke from the corner of his eye (he thinks) longing and aching, his cousins hand's sweat not entirely from the high temperature of the weather.

_Honestly… _he sighs and finds the sun the most prolonged sort of suffering.


	5. Talk

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and not me.

Talk – PG

Itachi is sitting and besides him Shisui sits as well. The moon hanging in the sky, Sasuke sleeping soundly in the room behind them. The world sleeping.

Shisui is talking animatedly, the rotting wood feigning denial hushed over everything, the grass is tall and uncut, and the branches of the trees droop with patterned leaves, his cousin smiles brightly with every word he utters from soft lips.

"The fish stalls have been packed lately- did you see the cheapened prices?"

Sighing, Itachi finds himself repeating the same words to Shisui's many different questions. To a degree it was amusing.

"No,"

At this Shisui sighs, looking disappointed, "You're missing out cousin, rabid aunts wanting to get the fat and fresh for the cheapest price- hair rising early in the morning, the sweat off of Uncle Matsumo's face pouring in rivulets!"

There is silence and the sweet chirp of crickets.

Itachi wondered what sleep felt like nowadays.


	6. Battle towards the Empire

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and not me.

Battle towards the Empire – PG13

Licking the back of his teeth, almost experimental in how long it would take him to remove every bit of the sandwich he had had for lunch from the spaces between each tooth, Uchiha Shisui is lazily enjoying the heat of summer despite being born in a cooler season.

His pant legs are hiked up, showing off his ankles, slim and breakable. He's said to be the best Uchiha in the clan and at seventeen, ego swollen and ideals priority he thinks so as well.

Shisui of the mirage.

That was his title for now.

But years ago he knew before his sister died, before his father died, before his mother died. It had been another's.

He sits under a tree shadows crossing over the regular aristocratic features his kin seemed to carry a grace that shown with burden and flaunted it at every angle, too proud to run across grass but humble in the slight to walk. The moving afternoon weather is lovely and the sky is cloudless. Blue is the sky and Shisui is reminded of the old. Peaceful mood swinging to an irritated degree he rises to his feet dusting off his pants. Wondering if he could grab some tea before preparing for another mission.

A mission his cousin Itachi would be working with him on.

It was the first time and probably the last- least Shisui didn't think with him- the youngest to start working for the police in all of the clan's history- with the ANBU eyeing Itachi like the ultimate weapon that had been hidden for the ace.

Shisui didn't like that at all and often the easy chipper he showed didn't mask all of his indifference to other's outside his clan.

The hokage.

Shisui could only think of that old man as a fool that needed to step down.

Like he had-

Shisui stops, not noticing he has already as if on auto started to walk on the path, across a high hill to docks he saw Sasuke visit every so often (he does not know Sasuke will not visit them again) his eyes reflect the light on the water making his thoughtful expression look bright but eerie. Those years ago, when the kyuubi had attacked Konoha, his father had told him many had died due to allowing the weak to participate.

"_Was the Yondaime weak?"_

"_Yes."_

_Shisui had paused, innocence didn't cloud any judgment as curiosity did. "But didn't he save the village?"_

"_A man who dies in battle is not strong at all."_

And today. _Not strong. _His feet move again and almost scoffing he recalls that drawn out memory, his sister's death, and a kind warm hand on his head- he would always despise its weakness. The witnessing of his own weakness. Tears. Sorrow. Relenting.

He owed them everything from the past generations.

Back then as a child he didn't agree with his father at all. Even now he didn't think he did.

And it is only when Itachi rams his head into the concrete wall for the eighteenth time, his blood smearing across the surface the descending horizontal smear darken by the evening, arms broken and ribs bruised- lungs struggling to catch his breath and brain blank of any counter attack that he finally agrees.


	7. Cold Tea

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and not me.

_Cold Tea_ - Mikoto + Shisui, impl. ItaSasu - PG13 - drabble

She sits with him and drinks the tea slowly, captivated by the vision, the images the leaves bring. Lying so dutifully. They sit at the bottom of her cup. She sets it down and cannot salvage any look to express her anger, her fear, and her disgrace.

"It's fine Mikoto-san," and there he is stroking her hands, calm voice trying to put her at ease and coiling it all harder, tighter within her, like the obi for her 12th birthday- a maroon with fetching red and orange flowers littered across it in abandoned design.

It frightens her how when the sunlight hits them at an angle- that Shisui's eyes look dark blue. Sometimes Sasuke's are like that too. So dark but not all at once, and the image comes before her eyes again- Itachi so gentle and cunning and hateful it chills her to the bone; his hands dark against Sasuke's white flesh...

And she fears for him, Sasuke. Knowing he will soon live in a world where she will not be there to put in any more temporal guidance.

"Shisui-" a hand dismissing her words and her breath and she looks on, the rest of the tea cooling impolitely. She will not deny what she saw, even if Fugaku has.

"It is better to leave Itachi alone."

A slight shift, turn of his head, "It is in your best interests, as it is in Itachi's-"

"But Sasuke's?" her voice is uncharacteristically high. Not of herself, so frantic.

Shisui nods. "You cannot tell me you are ignorant of what kind of sin the Uchiha are."

And Mikoto takes a sip of the cold tea.

Cursing herself even in the dark on how she looked away that day.


End file.
